The role of attentional breadth in perceptual change detection

An updating-based working memory load alters the dynamics of eye movements but not their spatial extent during free viewing of natural scenes

The relationship between spatial deployments of attention and working memory load is an important topic of study, with clear implications for real-world tasks such as driving. Previous research has generally shown that attentional breadth broadens under higher load, while exploratory eye-movement behaviour also appears to change with increasing load. However, relatively little research has compared the effects of working memory load on different kinds of spatial deployment, especially in conditions that require updating of the contents of working memory rather than simple retrieval. The present study undertook such a comparison by measuring participants' attentional breadth (via an undirected Navon task) and their exploratory eye-movement behaviour (a free-viewing recall task) under low and high updating working memory loads. While spatial aspects of task performance (attentional breadth, and peripheral extent of image exploration in the free-viewing task) were unaffected by the load manipulation, the exploratory dynamics of the free-viewing task (including fixation durations and scan-path lengths) changed under increasing load. These findings suggest that temporal dynamics, rather than the spatial extent of exploration, are the primary mechanism affected by working memory load during the spatial deployment of attention. Further, individual differences in exploratory behaviour were observed on the free-viewing task: all metrics were highly correlated across working memory load blocks. These findings suggest a need for further investigation of individual differences in eye-movement behaviour; potential factors associated with these individual differences, including working memory capacity and persistence versus flexibility orientations, are discussed.

How to get rich from inflation

We seem to have rich experience across our visual field. Yet we are surprisingly poor at tasks involving the periphery and low spatial attention. Recently, Lau and collaborators have argued that a phenomenon known as "subjective inflation" allows us to reconcile these phenomena. I show inflation is consistent with multiple interpretations, with starkly different consequences for richness and for theories of consciousness more broadly. What's more, we have only weak reasons favouring any of these interpretations over the others. I provisionally argue for an interpretation on which subjective experience is genuinely rich, but (in peripheral/unattended areas) unreliable as a guide to the external world. The main challenge for this view is that it appears to imply that experience in the periphery is not just unreliable but unstable. However, I argue that this consequence, while initially appearing unintuitive, is in fact plausible.

Hallucinating visual structure: Individual differences in 'scaffolded attention'

Our percepts usually derive their structure from particular cues in the incoming sensory information, but this is not so in the phenomenon of scaffolded attention - where shifting patterns of attention give rise to 'everyday hallucinations' of visual structure even in the absence of sensory cues. When looking at a piece of graph paper, for example, the squares are all identical - yet many people see a shifting array of structured patterns such as lines, crosses, or even block-letters - something that doesn't occur when staring at a blank page. We have informally noted that scaffolded attention is a widely but not universally shared phenomenon - with some people spontaneously experiencing such percepts (even without instruction), others seeing such 'phantom' structures only when actively trying to so, and still others never having such experiences at all. Accordingly, the present study assessed the prevalence of scaffolded attention - both as an ability, and a spontaneous phenomenon. These results were then correlated with several measures of imagery and attention, in an attempt to explain the nature and origin of such individual differences. 40% of observers experienced scaffolded attention spontaneously, and 78% did so when trying - and these differences were uniquely modulated by certain measures of attention (such as attentional breadth, as measured by the 'functional field of view'), but not by measures of the vividness or spontaneity of mental imagery. These results inspire an explanation for scaffolded attention based on spontaneous perceptual grouping.

The mystery remains: breadth of attention in Flanker and Navon tasks unaffected by affective states induced by an appraisal manipulation

Affective effects on breadth of attention have been related to aspects of different components of affective states such as the arousal and valence of affective experience and the motivational intensity of action tendency. As none of these explanations fully aligns with existing evidence, we hypothesised that affective effects on breadth of attention may arise from the appraisal component of affective states. Based on this reconceptualisation, we tested the effects of conduciveness and power appraisals on two measures of breadth of attention. In two web-based experiments, we manipulated these appraisals in a 2 × 2 design using a game-like arithmetic task where participants could (1) gain or lose rewards (goal conducive vs. obstructive) based on (2) either their action or the actions of a "robot" (high vs. low power). Breadth of attention was assessed using the flanker task (Experiment 1; n = 236) and the Navon task (Experiment 2; n = 215). We found that appraisals did not directly influence breadth of attention even though high power appraisal significantly improved the overall performance in both experiments indicating successful appraisal manipulation. We discuss ways in which these findings inform future efforts to explain the origins of affective effects on attentional breadth.

Neurally-constrained modeling of human gaze strategies in a change blindness task

Despite possessing the capacity for selective attention, we often fail to notice the obvious. We investigated participants’ (n = 39) failures to detect salient changes in a change blindness experiment. Surprisingly, change detection success varied by over two-fold across participants. These variations could not be readily explained by differences in scan paths or fixated visual features. Yet, two simple gaze metrics–mean duration of fixations and the variance of saccade amplitudes–systematically predicted change detection success. We explored the mechanistic underpinnings of these results with a neurally-constrained model based on the Bayesian framework of sequential probability ratio testing, with a posterior odds-ratio rule for shifting gaze. The model’s gaze strategies and success rates closely mimicked human data. Moreover, the model outperformed a state-of-the-art deep neural network (DeepGaze II) with predicting human gaze patterns in this change blindness task. Our mechanistic model reveals putative rational observer search strategies for change detection during change blindness, with critical real-world implications.

Our brain has the remarkable capacity to pay attention, selectively, to important objects in the world around us. Yet, sometimes, we fail spectacularly to notice even the most salient events. We tested this phenomenon in the laboratory with a change-blindness experiment, by having participants freely scan and detect changes across discontinuous image pairs. Participants varied widely in their ability to detect these changes. Surprisingly, two low-level gaze metrics—fixation durations and saccade amplitudes—strongly predicted success in this task. We present a novel, computational model of eye movements, incorporating neural constraints on stimulus encoding, that links these gaze metrics with change detection success. Our model is relevant for a mechanistic understanding of human gaze strategies in dynamic visual environments.

Using change detection to objectively evaluate whether novel over-the-counter drug labels can increase attention to critical health information among older adults

Over-the-counter (OTC) drugs have many benefits but also carry risks, such as adverse drug reactions, which are more prevalent in older adults. Because these products do not require the oversight of a physician or pharmacist, labeling plays a key role in communicating information required for their safe and effective use. Research suggests that current labels are not terribly effective at communicating potential risk. One reason for their lack of effectiveness is that few consumers attend to critical information (active ingredients and warnings) when making purchases. In two experiments, we used a change detection task to objectively evaluate how novel label designs that employ highlighting and a warning label placed on the package’s front impact attention to critical information among older participants (65 and older). The change detection task is a unique form of visual search which allowed us to assess the attentional priority of critical information among participants who were not explicitly instructed to search for this critical information. This unique aspect of the task is important given research suggesting that consumers rarely have the explicit goal of seeking out warnings and active ingredients when making OTC selections. Our results provide empirical support that both highlighting critical information and positioning it on the package’s front increase its attentional prioritization relative to current, commercial practice. Given that attending to the critical information is prerequisite to utilizing that information, strategies that elicit attention in this way are likely to reduce medication errors.

A critical review of the cognitive and perceptual factors influencing attentional scaling and visual processing

An important mechanism used to selectively process relevant information in the environment is spatial attention. One fundamental way in which spatial attention is deployed is attentional scaling - the process of focusing attentional resources either narrowly or broadly across the visual field. Although early empirical work suggested that narrowing attention improves all aspects of visual processing, recent studies have demonstrated that narrowing attention can also have no effect or even a detrimental impact when it comes to vision that is thought to be mediated via the magnocellular pathway of the visual system. Here, for the first time, we synthesize empirical evidence measuring the behavioral effects of attentional scaling on tasks gauging the contribution of the major neural pathways of the visual system, with the purpose of determining the potential factors driving these contradictory empirical findings. This analysis revealed that attentional scaling could be best understood by considering the unique methodologies used in the research literature to date. The implications of this analysis for theoretical frameworks of attentional scaling are discussed, and methodological improvements for future research are proposed.

Optimistic metacognitive judgments predict poor performance in relatively complex visual tasks

In some cases, people overestimate how much they can see. This can produce a metacognitive blind spot that may lead participants to devote fewer cognitive resources than a visual task demands. However, little research has tested whether individuals who are particularly optimistic about their visual capabilities are susceptible to poor visual performance. We tested whether optimistic metacognitive judgments would predict poor performance in a visual task, especially when it placed a large attentional load on the participant, and when it required balancing between multiple sources of information. We tested participants in a simplified battle command simulation in which they were asked to detect visual changes. Participants who predicted spatially expansive visual attention performance performed more poorly in the change detection task when the task required tracking larger numbers of aircraft, and when it included a secondary change-list display.

Flexibility in resizing attentional breadth: Asymmetrical versus symmetrical attentional contraction and expansion costs depends on context

One of the core ways that attentional resources can be regulated is the breadth of attention: the tendency to concentrate one’s attentional resources over a small region of space (i.e., “narrow scope”), or to spread them over a larger region of space (i.e., “broad scope”). It has long been understood that humans have a preference towards the broad or global level of processing. More recently, beyond any static preference, researchers have increasingly appreciated the importance of rapid rescaling of attentional breadth to meet task demands, especially for real-world tasks such as driving. Here, we examined whether there was any asymmetry in the human capacity to resize attention from a narrow to broad scale (expansion) versus a broad to narrow scale (contraction). In Experiment 1, we found remarkable symmetry in expansion and contraction efficiency, even under conditions where the global stimuli were demonstrably more salient. This indicates that humans can flexibly adapt to the attentional demands of the context. However, in Experiment 2, an asymmetry was revealed, whereby attentional expansion was more efficient than contraction. The key difference between Experiments 1 and 2 was whether or not the initial baseline block demanded frequent attentional resizing, suggesting that recent experience can impact attentional flexibility. We also found reliable individual differences in participants’ ability to resize their attentional breadth, identifying a group of high-flexibility individuals who excelled at both attentional expansion and contraction.

PTSD symptoms and overt attention to contextualized emotional faces: Evidence from eye tracking

Abnormal patterns of attention to emotional faces and images are proposed by theories of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and this has been demonstrated empirically. However, few studies have examined how PTSD symptoms are associated with attention to emotional faces in the context of emotional background images. Eye tracking data were collected from seventy-eight undergraduates with a history of experiencing at least one traumatic event as they completed the Contextual Recognition of Affective Faces Task (CRAFT; Milanak and Berenbaum, 2014), which requires subjects to identify the emotion depicted by faces superimposed on an emotional background image. Greater PTSD symptom severity was associated with more time spent looking at background contexts and less time looking at target faces. This is consistent with greater susceptibility to distraction by task-irrelevant emotional stimuli. The duration of each gaze fixation upon fear faces was shorter for those with greater PTSD symptoms, and this pattern was marginally significant for disgust faces. These findings suggest that PTSD symptoms may relate to greater attention toward non-facial background scenes and less attention toward facial stimuli, especially when conveying a fear or disgust expression.

Changes in the spatial spread of attention with ageing

Spatial attention is a necessary cognitive process, allowing for the direction of limited capacity resources to varying locations in the visual field for improved visual processing. Thus, understanding how ageing influences these processes is vital. The current study explored the relationship between the spatial spread of attention and healthy ageing using an inhibition of return task to tap visual attention processing. This task allowed us to measure the spatial distribution of inhibition, and thus acted as a marker for attentional spread. Past research has indicated minimal age differences in inhibitory spread. However, these studies used placeholder stimuli, which may have restricted the range over which age differences could be reliably measured. To address this, in Experiment One, we measured the relationship between the spatial spread of inhibition and healthy ageing using a method which did not employ placeholders. In contrast to past research, an age difference in inhibitory spread was observed, where in comparison to younger adults, older adults exhibited a relatively restricted spread of attention. Experiment Two then confirmed these findings, by directly comparing inhibitory spread for placeholder present and placeholder absent conditions, across younger and older adults. Again, it was found that age differences in inhibitory spread emerged, but only in the placeholder absent condition. Possible reasons for the observed age differences in attention are discussed.

Older Adult Multitasking Performance Using a Gaze-Contingent Useful Field of View

Objective We implemented a gaze-contingent useful field of view paradigm to examine older adult multitasking performance in a simulated driving environment. Background Multitasking refers to the ability to manage multiple simultaneous streams of information. Recent work suggests that multitasking declines with age, yet the mechanisms supporting these declines are still debated. One possible framework to better understand this phenomenon is the useful field of view, or the area in the visual field where information can be attended and processed. In particular, the useful field of view allows for the discrimination of two competing theories of real-time multitasking, a general interference account and a tunneling account. Methods Twenty-five older adult subjects completed a useful field of view task that involved discriminating the orientation of lines in gaze-contingent Gabor patches appearing at varying eccentricities (based on distance from the fovea) as they operated a vehicle in a driving simulator. In half of the driving scenarios, subjects also completed an auditory two-back task to manipulate cognitive workload, and during some trials, wind was introduced as a means to alter general driving difficulty. Results Consistent with prior work, indices of driving performance were sensitive to both wind and workload. Interestingly, we also observed a decline in Gabor patch discrimination accuracy under high cognitive workload regardless of eccentricity, which provides support for a general interference account of multitasking. Conclusion The results showed that our gaze-contingent useful field of view paradigm was able to successfully examine older adult multitasking performance in a simulated driving environment. Application This study represents the first attempt to successfully measure dynamic changes in the useful field of view for older adults completing a multitasking scenario involving driving.

Can people identify original and manipulated photos of real-world scenes?

Advances in digital technology mean that the creation of visually compelling photographic fakes is growing at an incredible speed. The prevalence of manipulated photos in our everyday lives invites an important, yet largely unanswered, question: Can people detect photo forgeries? Previous research using simple computer-generated stimuli suggests people are poor at detecting geometrical inconsistencies within a scene. We do not know, however, whether such limitations also apply to real-world scenes that contain common properties that the human visual system is attuned to processing. In two experiments we asked people to detect and locate manipulations within images of real-world scenes. Subjects demonstrated a limited ability to detect original and manipulated images. Furthermore, across both experiments, even when subjects correctly detected manipulated images, they were often unable to locate the manipulation. People’s ability to detect manipulated images was positively correlated with the extent of disruption to the underlying structure of the pixels in the photo. We also explored whether manipulation type and individual differences were associated with people’s ability to identify manipulations. Taken together, our findings show, for the first time, that people have poor ability to identify whether a real-world image is original or has been manipulated. The results have implications for professionals working with digital images in legal, media, and other domains.

Age-related differences in fatal intersection crashes in the United States

OBJECTIVE

Given the aging U.S. population and resulting number of older drivers in the coming years, it is important to understand the factors leading to their involvement in vehicle crashes and develop counter-measures to reduce their frequency and severity. This is also useful for helping older adults "age in place" in terms of accessibility, mobility, quality of life and safety. Thus, the objective of this study was to provide up-to-date data on differences in age-related risks and rates for involvement in fatal intersection motor-vehicle crashes in the US.

METHODS

Pooled data for the years 2011-2014 from the FARS, a census of fatal traffic crashes within the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, created by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) were used to calculate summary statistics including annualized crash rates. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to evaluate age and gender-related differences in fatal intersection crash risk, controlling for covariates. An induced exposure analysis was conducted to calculate crash involvement ratios (CIRs) for all two-vehicle fatal intersection crashes. Older and younger drivers were compared with respect to the presence of factors related to intersection crashes using a multivariate Poisson regression model.

RESULTS

During the period of 2011-2014, among the reported 120,809 fatal accidents in the US involving 178,489 drivers of vehicles, 48,733 (28%) were drivers involved in fatal intersection crashes. Age-adjusted annualized fatal intersection crash rates per 100,000 licensed drivers were highest for drivers aged 85 or older (9.89/100,000), followed by 20 years of age (8.93/100,000). Teen and older drivers (55+ years of age) were over-involved in fatal intersection crashes, drivers from 20 to 54 years old were under-involved. Male and female drivers, 70-74 years of age, were 20% and 21%, respectively, more likely to be involved in a fatal intersection crash than 20-24year olds (of same gender). By age 85, fatal intersection crash risk for all drivers was almost doubled. Significant differences in factors related to crashes involving younger (<65) and older (65+ years) drivers were time of day, lighting and weather conditions, day of week, roadway type and number of lanes, presence of visible traffic controls, speed limit and estimated driving speed, and whether the driver was deemed at fault for the crash CONCLUSION: The results provide the most up-to-date analysis of aging and fatal intersection crash risk in the US, and underscore several trends worthy of further investigation. Older adults face a number of challenges associated with natural aging, including sensory, perceptual, cognitive and motor declines that may impact their driving. As with younger drivers, expanded or renewed approaches to driver training at licensing renewals, as well as safety-based technological advances are viable avenues toward improving the safety outlook for older adults.

Change Detection after Preliminary Flight Decisions: Linking Planning Errors to Biases in Plan Monitoring

The present study investigated a link between plan continuation errors and plan monitoring. Pilots were asked to execute a flight plan that traversed through hazardous airspace and then monitor the success of the plan by seeking and detecting changes in the airspace that could affect the safety of the plan. Following change detection, pilots had the opportunity to revise these plans. In nearly one-third of trials, pilots failed to revise flight plans, thereby committing a plan continuation error, and were more likely to do so when plan monitoring was inadequate. Overall, more than half of changes went undetected, though detection response times were improved when changes were relevant to the flight planning task or when traffic aircraft were changed rather than weather systems. Findings imply that plan monitoring is less than perfect, which may be a substantial contributing factor to plan continuation errors.

Measuring the Useful Field of View During Simulated Driving With Gaze-Contingent Displays

OBJECTIVE

We aimed to develop and test a new dynamic measure of transient changes to the useful field of view (UFOV), utilizing a gaze-contingent paradigm for use in realistic simulated environments.

BACKGROUND

The UFOV, the area from which an observer can extract visual information during a single fixation, has been correlated with driving performance and crash risk. However, some existing measures of the UFOV cannot be used dynamically in realistic simulators, and other UFOV measures involve constant stimuli at fixed locations. We propose a gaze-contingent UFOV measure (the GC-UFOV) that solves the above problems.

METHODS

Twenty-five participants completed four simulated drives while they concurrently performed an occasional gaze-contingent Gabor orientation discrimination task. Gabors appeared randomly at one of three retinal eccentricities (5°, 10°, or 15°). Cognitive workload was manipulated both with a concurrent auditory working memory task and with driving task difficulty (via presence/absence of lateral wind).

RESULTS

Cognitive workload had a detrimental effect on Gabor discrimination accuracy at all three retinal eccentricities. Interestingly, this accuracy cost was equivalent across eccentricities, consistent with previous findings of "general interference" rather than "tunnel vision."

CONCLUSION

The results showed that the GC-UFOV method was able to measure transient changes in UFOV due to cognitive load in a realistic simulated environment.

APPLICATION

The GC-UFOV paradigm developed and tested in this study is a novel and effective tool for studying transient changes in the UFOV due to cognitive load in the context of complex real-world tasks such as simulated driving.

Inattentional Blindness and Individual Differences in Cognitive Abilities

People sometimes fail to notice salient unexpected objects when their attention is otherwise occupied, a phenomenon known as inattentional blindness. To explore individual differences in inattentional blindness, we employed both static and dynamic tasks that either presented the unexpected object away from the focus of attention (spatial) or near the focus of attention (central). We hypothesized that noticing in central tasks might be driven by the availability of cognitive resources like working memory, and that noticing in spatial tasks might be driven by the limits on spatial attention like attention breadth. However, none of the cognitive measures predicted noticing in the dynamic central task or in either the static or dynamic spatial task. Only in the central static task did working memory capacity predict noticing, and that relationship was fairly weak. Furthermore, whether or not participants noticed an unexpected object in a static task was only weakly associated with their odds of noticing an unexpected object in a dynamic task. Taken together, our results are largely consistent with the notion that noticing unexpected objects is driven more by stochastic processes common to all people than by stable individual differences in cognitive abilities.

Rapid Communication: Personality and attention: Levels of neuroticism and extraversion can predict attentional performance during a change detection task

The present study demonstrates that levels of extraversion and neuroticism can predict attentional performance during a change detection task. After completing a change detection task built on the flicker paradigm, participants were assessed for personality traits using the Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ–R). Multiple regression analyses revealed that higher levels of extraversion predict increased change detection accuracies, while higher levels of neuroticism predict decreased change detection accuracies. In addition, neurotic individuals exhibited decreased sensitivity A′ and increased fixation dwell times. Hierarchical regression analyses further revealed that eye movement measures mediate the relationship between neuroticism and change detection accuracies. Based on the current results, we propose that neuroticism is associated with decreased attentional control over the visual field, presumably due to decreased attentional disengagement. Extraversion can predict increased attentional performance, but the effect is smaller than the relationship between neuroticism and attention.

Age-related differences in the P3 amplitude in change blindness

Observers often miss visual changes in the environment when they co-occur with other visual disruptions. This phenomenon is called change blindness. Previous research has shown that change blindness increases with age. The aim of the current study was to explore the role of post-perceptual stimulus processing in age differences. Therefore, the P3 component of the event-related potential was measured while younger, middle-aged, and older participants performed a change detection task under different task demands. Older adults detected fewer changes than younger adults, even when the task was very easy. Detected changes elicited greater P3 amplitudes than undetected changes in younger adults. This effect was reduced or even absent for middle-aged and older participants, irrespective of task demands. Because this P3 effect is supposed to reflect participants' confidence in change detection, less confidence in own responses may explain the decline of change detection performance in normal aging.

Comparison of interstimulus intervals on change detection in nondriving and driving scenarios

Change detection across disruptions of visual scenes is typically studied using brief durations of the interstimulus interval (ISI) (i.e., up to 300 ms). We investigated change detection across durations that approximate longer, voluntary glances away from a visual scene (i.e., 500-2,000 ms), which are often actualized in driving situations. Experiment 1 found that in nondriving scenarios, change detection performance, as measured by accuracy and response time, decreased as ISI increased. Experiment 2 found that in driving scenarios, change detection for plausible changes also decreased as the ISI increased, but there was no similar decrease in performance for implausible changes. Both Experiments 1 and 2 showed that the necessary number of exposures to the change decreased as ISIs approximated voluntary glances, suggesting that change detection strategies may be modified at longer ISI durations.

Cognitive and visual predictors of UFOV performance in older adults

Eighty two community dwelling older adults (52 females) aged 62-92 years (mean=75) completed a battery of cognitive and visual tests selected to assess functions relevant to driving performance. These were visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, general mental competence (Mini Mental State Examination, MMSE), processing speed (Inspection Time, IT), crowding across the visual field (Proficiency of Peripheral Vision Processing, ProPerVis) and change detection (DriverScan). These six tasks provided predictor variables for performance on the Useful Field of View test (UFOV), a well validated test of fitness to drive that includes subtests for (i) processing speed; (ii) divided attention; and (iii) selective attention. Relative importance regression analyses confirmed that UFOV is sensitive to attentional and speed processes but suggested that subtest (i) primarily reflects visual acuity and contrast sensitivity; subtest (ii) is better explained by change detection and processing speed; and subtest (iii) predominantly reflects crowding and contrast sensitivity. Unexpectedly, given no evidence of substantial cognitive decline, MMSE contributed significantly to performance on the more complex subtests (ii) and (iii).

Guidance of visual attention by semantic information in real-world scenes

Recent research on attentional guidance in real-world scenes has focused on object recognition within the context of a scene. This approach has been valuable for determining some factors that drive the allocation of visual attention and determine visual selection. This article provides a review of experimental work on how different components of context, especially semantic information, affect attentional deployment. We review work from the areas of object recognition, scene perception, and visual search, highlighting recent studies examining semantic structure in real-world scenes. A better understanding on how humans parse scene representations will not only improve current models of visual attention but also advance next-generation computer vision systems and human-computer interfaces.

Change detection: training and transfer

Observers often fail to notice even dramatic changes to their environment, a phenomenon known as change blindness. If training could enhance change detection performance in general, then it might help to remedy some real-world consequences of change blindness (e.g. failing to detect hazards while driving). We examined whether adaptive training on a simple change detection task could improve the ability to detect changes in untrained tasks for young and older adults. Consistent with an effective training procedure, both young and older adults were better able to detect changes to trained objects following training. However, neither group showed differential improvement on untrained change detection tasks when compared to active control groups. Change detection training led to improvements on the trained task but did not generalize to other change detection tasks.

Semantic consistency versus perceptual salience in visual scenes: findings from change detection

In a one-shot change detection task, we investigated the relationship between semantic properties (high consistency, i.e., diagnosticity, versus inconsistency with regard to gist) and perceptual properties (high versus low salience) of objects in guiding attention in visual scenes and in constructing scene representations. To produce the change an object was added or deleted in either the right or left half of coloured drawings of daily-life events. Diagnostic object deletions were more accurately detected than inconsistent ones, indicating rapid inclusion into early scene representation for the most predictable objects. Detection was faster and more accurate for high salience than for low salience changes. An advantage was found for diagnostic object changes in the high salience condition, although it was limited to additions when considering response speed. For inconsistent objects of high salience, deletions were detected faster than additions. These findings may indicate that objects are primarily selected on a perceptual basis with subsequent and supplementary effect of semantic consistency, in the sense of facilitation due to object diagnosticity or lengthening of processing time due to inconsistency.

Things Seen and Unseen: Investigating Experience-Based Qualities of Attention in a Dynamic Work Setting

While interest in the topic of attention has a long history in organizational studies, little research has investigated what qualities of attention are most pertinent to working professionals—and how these qualities may be attained. Through the study reported here, I elaborate theory concerning the qualities of attention in a dynamic work setting (trial law). Specifically, I identify the importance of two qualities of attention—attentional breadth and attentional integration—and examine how these qualities connect to the experiences individuals accrue within the focal context. My findings indicate that, through the acquisition of experience, individuals become attentive to a wide range of events surrounding them (via attentional breadth) and attuned to the opportunities that reside within these events (via attentional integration). Therefore, in achieving these two qualities of attention, individuals are able to see not only more events but also more possibilities.

Evaluation of screening tests for predicting older driver performance and safety assessed by an on-road test

A number of tests and test batteries are available for the prediction of older driver safety, but many of these have not been validated against standardized driving outcome measures. The aim of this study was to evaluate a series of previously described screening tests in terms of their ability to predict the potential for safe and unsafe driving. Participants included 79 community-dwelling older drivers (M=72.16 years, SD=5.46; range 65-88 years; 57 males and 22 females) who completed a previously validated multi-disciplinary driving assessment, a hazard perception test, a hazard change detection test and a battery of vision and cognitive tests. Participants also completed a standardized on-road driving assessment. The multi-disciplinary test battery had the highest predictive ability with a sensitivity of 80% and a specificity of 73%, followed by the hazard perception test which demonstrated a sensitivity of 75% and a specificity of 61%. These findings suggest that a relatively simple and practical battery of tests from a range of domains has the capacity to predict safe and unsafe driving in older adults.

Using eye movement measures to investigate effects of age on memory for objects in a scene

We examined whether there were age-related differences in eye movements during intentional encoding of a photographed scene that might account for age-related differences in memory of objects in the scene. Younger and older adults exhibited similar scan path patterns, and visited each region of interest in the scene with similar frequency and duration. Despite the similarity in viewing, there were fundamental differences in the viewing-memory relationship. Although overall recognition was poorer in the older than younger adults, there was no age effect on recognition probability for objects visited only once. More importantly, re-visits to objects brought gain in recognition probability for the younger adults, but not for the older adults. These results suggest that the age-related differences in object recognition performance are in part due to inefficient integration of information from working memory to longer-term memory.

Aging, eye movements, and object-location memory

This study investigated whether “intentional” instructions could improve older adults' object memory and object-location memory about a scene by promoting object-oriented viewing. Eye movements of younger and older adults were recorded while they viewed a photograph depicting 12 household objects in a cubicle with or without the knowledge that memory about these objects and their locations would be tested (intentional vs. incidental encoding). After viewing, participants completed recognition and relocation tasks. Both instructions and age affected viewing behaviors and memory. Relative to incidental instructions, intentional instructions resulted in more accurate memory about object identity and object-location binding, but did not affect memory accuracy about overall positional configuration. More importantly, older adults exhibited more object-oriented viewing in the intentional than incidental condition, supporting the environmental support hypothesis.

The role of cognitive and visual abilities as predictors in the Multifactorial Model of Driving Safety

OBJECTIVE

The current study evaluated part of the Multifactorial Model of Driving Safety to elucidate the relative importance of cognitive function and a limited range of standard measures of visual function in relation to the Capacity to Drive Safely. Capacity to Drive Safely was operationalized using three validated screening measures for older drivers. These included an adaptation of the well validated Useful Field of View (UFOV) and two newer measures, namely a Hazard Perception Test (HPT), and a Hazard Change Detection Task (HCDT).

METHOD

Community dwelling drivers (n=297) aged 65-96 were assessed using a battery of measures of cognitive and visual function.

RESULTS

Factor analysis of these predictor variables yielded factors including Executive/Speed, Vision (measured by visual acuity and contrast sensitivity), Spatial, Visual Closure, and Working Memory. Cognitive and Vision factors explained 83-95% of age-related variance in the Capacity to Drive Safely. Spatial and Working Memory were associated with UFOV, HPT and HCDT, Executive/Speed was associated with UFOV and HCDT and Vision was associated with HPT.

CONCLUSION

The Capacity to Drive Safely declines with chronological age, and this decline is associated with age-related declines in several higher order cognitive abilities involving manipulation and storage of visuospatial information under speeded conditions. There are also age-independent effects of cognitive function and vision that determine driving safety.

Aging and the detection of visual errors in scenes

Young and older adults performed a visual error detection task in two experiments. In Experiment 1, errors and anomalies were embedded in large, complex visual scenes, and participants were to find them and describe the nature of the identified problems. Young adults found more errors than older adults, a finding unrelated to age differences in near visual acuity or time constraints. Experiment 2 replicated the age difference in error detection using simplified visual scenes containing fewer errors. Results are interpreted as reflecting older adults' decreased ability to form representations for novel information, even though the task did not require the creation of new episodic memories.

The right hemisphere advantage in visual change detection depends on temporal factors

What accounts for the Right Hemisphere (RH) functional superiority in visual change detection? An original task which combines one-shot and divided visual field paradigms allowed us to direct change information initially to the RH or the Left Hemisphere (LH) by deleting, respectively, an object included in the left or right half of a scene presented centrally. We manipulated the perceptual salience and semantic relevance of the change as well as the duration of the Inter-Stimulus Interval (ISI) between the scenes in order to clarify the role of the RH in memory and attention processes, and to explore whether lengthening the ISI would enhance the contribution of the LH. When analyzing data collapsed over the two levels (high vs. low) of salience and of relevance, changes were better detected in the left visual field (lvf) than in the right visual field (rvf) in the case of a short ISI, while no difference emerged in the case of a long ISI. Moreover, lengthening the ISI resulted in a performance decrement in the lvf, both for accuracy and response speed. The fact that the RH superiority was limited to short intervals indicates that stimulus-driven orienting contributes more than perceptual processing to this hemispheric asymmetry. When considering perceptual and semantic properties of the change, the effect of the ISI duration seemed to specifically emerge in the case of low relevance, with an enhancement of accuracy in the rvf when comparing the long with the short ISI. This suggests that the ISI influence on hemispheric performance operates on different levels.

The Distracted Driver

This chapter investigates driver distraction, a pressing road safety issue. First, research findings regarding the demands placed on drivers by the primary driving tasks and various non-driving-related secondary tasks are reviewed. Second, promising theories and models are reviewed for characterizing how driver distraction is caused and how it affects the driving task. Third, a review is provided of current investigation and measurement methods used in distraction research, guidelines, standards, antidistraction devices, and antidistraction legislation. Fourth, the most important implications from this review are summarized for the various stakeholders in the driver distraction debate. And finally, some important issues for future research into driver distraction are discussed, as is the importance of considering driver distraction in the context of an integrated safety vision.

Change detection in complex scenes: hemispheric contribution and the role of perceptual and semantic factors

The perceptual salience and semantic relevance of objects for the meaning of a scene were evaluated with multiple criteria and then manipulated in a change-detection experiment that used an original combination of one-shot and tachistoscopic divided-visual-field paradigms to study behavioural hemispheric asymmetry. Coloured drawings that depicted meaningful situations were presented centrally and very briefly (120 ms) and only the changes were lateralised by adding an object in the right or in the left visual hemifield. High salience and high relevance improved both response times (RTs) and accuracy, although the overall contribution of salience was greater than that of relevance. Moreover, only for low-salience changes did relevance affect speed. RTs were shorter when a change occurred in the left visual hemifield, suggesting a right-hemisphere advantage for detection of visual change. Also, men responded faster than women. The theoretical and methodological implications are discussed.

Modeling the control of attention in visual workspaces

OBJECTIVE

The present study developed and validated a stochastic model of overt attention within a visual workspace.

BACKGROUND

Technical specifications and recommended practices for the design of visual warning systems emphasize the role of alert salience. Task demands and display context can modulate alert noticeability, however, meaning that salience alone does not guarantee attention capture.

METHOD

A stochastic model integrated elements from existing models of visual attention to predict attentional behavior in dynamic environments.Validation studies tested the predictions of the new model against scanning data from a high-fidelity simulator study and behavioral data from an alert detection experiment.

RESULTS

The model accurately predicted the steady-state distribution of attention within a simulated cockpit as well as the effects of color similarity, eccentricity, and dynamic visual noise on miss rates and response times in the alert detection task.

CONCLUSION

The model successfully predicts attentional behavior in complex visual workspaces with the use of parameter values selected by either the modeler or a subject matter expert.

APPLICATION

The model provides a tool to test the effectiveness of visual alerts in various display configurations and with varying task demands.

Translating cognitive neuroscience to the driver's operational environment: a neuroergonomic approach

Neuroergonomics provides a multidisciplinary translational approach that merges elements of neuroscience, human factors, cognitive psychology, and ergonomics to study brain structure and function in everyday environments. Driving safety, particularly that of older drivers with cognitive impairments, is a fruitful application domain for neuroergonomics. Driving makes demands on multiple cognitive processes that are often studied in isolation and so presents a useful challenge in generalizing findings from controlled laboratory tasks to predict safety outcomes. Neurology and the cognitive sciences help explain the mechanisms of cognitive breakdowns that undermine driving safety. Ergonomics complements this explanation with the tools for systematically exploring the various layers of complexity that define the activity of driving. A variety of tools, such as part task simulators, driving simulators, and instrumented vehicles, provide a window into cognition in the natural settings needed to assess the generalizability of laboratory findings and can provide an array of potential interventions to increase driving safety.

Change blindness and inattentional blindness

Change blindness and inattentional blindness are both failures of visual awareness. Change blindness is the failure to notice an obvious change. Inattentional blindness is the failure to notice the existence of an unexpected item. In each case, we fail to notice something that is clearly visible once we know to look for it. Despite similarities, each type of blindness has a unique background and distinct theoretical implications. Here, we discuss the central paradigms used to explore each phenomenon in a historical context. We also outline the central findings from each field and discuss their implications for visual perception and attention. In addition, we examine the impact of task and observer effects on both types of blindness as well as common pitfalls and confusions people make while studying these topics. WIREs Cogni Sci 2011 2 529-546 DOI: 10.1002/wcs.130 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.

Age-related decline of visual processing components in change detection

Previous research has suggested that an age-related decline in change detection may be due to older adults using a more conservative response criterion. However, this finding may reflect methodological limitations of the traditional change detection design, in which displays are presented continuously until a change is detected. Across 2 experiments, the authors assessed adult age differences in a version of change detection that required a response after each pair of pre- and postchange displays, thus reducing the potential contribution of response criterion. Older adults performed worse than younger adults, committing more errors and requiring a greater number of display cycles for correct detection. These age-related performance declines were substantially reduced after controlling statistically for elementary perceptual speed. Search strategy was largely similar for the 2 age groups, but perceptual speed was less successful in accounting for age-related variance in detectability when a more precise spatial localization of change was required (Experiment 2). Thus, the negative effect of aging in the present tasks lies in a reduction of detection efficiency due largely to processing speed, though some strategy-level effects may also contribute. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

Two visual systems in monitoring of dynamic traffic: effects of visual disruption

Studies from neurophysiology and neuropsychology provide support for two separate object- and location-based visual systems, ventral and dorsal. In the driving context, a study was conducted using a change detection paradigm to explore drivers' ability to monitor the dynamic traffic flow, and the effects of visual disruption on these two visual systems. While driving, a discrete change, such as vehicle location, color, or identity, was occasionally made in one of the vehicles on the road ahead of the driver. Experiment results show that without visual disruption, all changes were detected very well; yet, these equally perceivable changes were disrupted differently by a brief blank display (150 ms): the detection of location changes was especially reduced. The disruption effects were also bigger for the parked vehicle compared to the moving ones. The findings support the different roles for two visual systems in monitoring the dynamic traffic: the "where", dorsal system, tracks vehicle spatiotemporal information on perceptual level, encoding information in a coarse and transient manner; whereas the "what", ventral system, monitors vehicles' featural information, encoding information more accurately and robustly. Both systems work together contributing to the driver's situation awareness of traffic. Benefits and limitations of using the driving simulation are also discussed.

N-SEEV: A Computational Model of Attention and Noticing

The N-SEEV is a stochastic model of overt attention within a visual display or workspace. The model integrates elements from several existing models of attention (Bundesen, 1987, 1990; Itti & Koch, 2000; Wolfe, 1994; Wickens, et al., 2003) to provide (1) predictions of the allocation of visual attention among discrete display channels; (2) the likelihood of a scanning transition between any pair of channels; and (3) the number of eye movements needed to fixate the onset of a visual signal or event. Preliminary tests of the model show a close fit between model predictions and actual pilot scanning and noticing times.

Effects of a computer-based training module on drivers' willingness to engage in distracting activities

OBJECTIVE

This study examines the effect of a computer-based training module on drivers' attitudes and behaviors with respect to in-vehicle distraction.

BACKGROUND

Research findings on the negative performance implications of distraction call for the need to mitigate these adverse effects.

METHOD

Forty drivers (ages 18 to 20 yrs) were divided into two groups: a training group that completed the module and a control group that viewed an unrelated video. The training promoted enhanced metacognitive skills (e.g., planning, monitoring) and strategies to deal with distraction. Measures of willingness to perform in-vehicle activities while driving (involving the use of short videos) were assessed before and after the intervention. Drivers also performed in-vehicle tasks while driving an instrumented vehicle on a closed test track.

RESULTS

Following the training, drivers in the training group showed a decline in their ratings of willingness to engage in distracting activities along with a corresponding increase in perceived risk. In contrast, ratings from drivers in the control group did not change on any measures. Drivers in the training group were also more likely to perform in-vehicle tasks while the vehicle was parked compared with the control group-an obvious safety benefit. However, there was no observable benefit of training for drivers who performed the distracting tasks while the vehicle was in motion.

CONCLUSION

There may be some promise to such a training approach. The implications for distraction and training are discussed.

APPLICATION

Training general skills in dealing with potentially distracting in-vehicle tasks may help offset some of the negative outcomes associated with their use.

Cultural Differences in Allocation of Attention in Visual Information Processing

Previous research has shown that when processing visual scenes, Westerners attend to salient objects and East Asians attend to the relationships between focal objects and background elements. It is possible that cross-cultural differences in attentional allocation contribute to these earlier findings. In this article, the authors investigate cultural differences in attentional allocation in two experiments, using a visual change detection paradigm. They demonstrate that East Asians are better than Americans at detecting color changes when a layout of a set of colored blocks is expanded to cover a wider region and worse when it is shrunk. East Asians are also slower than Americans are at detecting changes in the center of the screen. The data suggest that East Asians allocate their attention more broadly than Americans. The authors consider potential factors that may contribute to the development of such attention allocation differences.